Ki Thavo: Exile

 

Ki Thavo: Exile

 

The title of this week's parsha, derived from the first few words, כִּֽי־תָב֣וֹא, meaning "when you enter" is ironic.  Most of the parsha actually deals with exile. The parsha is notorious for the long list of horrors that will befall the nation if they fail to keep the Divine ordinances. They culminate in the debasement of the conquered and exiled people. 

Once the nation is settled on the land, the inhabitant brings a basket of first fruits to the Cohen and recites a formula of gratitude.  It is a passage that is recited as part of the Passover seder explaining how our ancestors came to Egypt:  

אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי, וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט, וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, עָצוּם וָרָב.

"An Aramean was destroying my father and he went down to Egypt, and he resided there with a small number, and he became there a nation, great, powerful and numerous."

Onkelos identifies this Aramean as uncle Lavan.  When Jacob was banished from his home because of the anger of his brother, Esau (father of the Romans), he ran to Lavan and started a family in his employ. Although the story that is related in the subsequent chapters has Jacob and his children return to Canaan and ultimately leaving the territory of the Promised Land because of famine; the story has them choose to go to Egypt, in part  because their long lost, betrayed brother Joseph and his accomplishments are there.  This verse summarizes and telescopes  the  events into fleeing to the oppression of Egypt in order to escape from  the destructive force of the Aramean.

 This is the model of choosing where to flee when the local situation becomes unbearable.  Egypt leads to the descendants of Jacob growing into a great, powerful and numerous nation. That nation, identified as the “us”, is enslaved and persecuted. To the Egyptians “we” are “them,” a people from elsewhere. The Egyptian bondage is, in part, a haven from the annihilation offered by the alternative.

The shoah also has its roots in an exile prompted by Esau (Rome).  The Jews who fled to the north, to Europe, flourished. As in the Bible story, when the Pharoah decrees that all the male Hebrew babies be killed, the ascendance of the Jews in Europe prompted a reaction to try to suppress the foreigners that culminates in their mass murder.

 

The terrifying curses that are listed at the end of Ki Thavo evoke the holocaust, but they do not descend to the level of that recent historic event. The Torah does not include

“and they will have you dig your graves and line you up and shoot you into the pit

And they will beat the heads of your children against a wall until they die

And they will create gas machines that smother hundreds at a time

And systematically herd you in 

And shovel out your corpses

And burn them.

Is this a failure of prophecy to see far enough into the future?

Today’s daf yomi, Sukkah 51  talks about peak experiences. It is interesting in this context:

The Sages taught: One who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water, never saw celebration in his life. One who did not see Jerusalem in its glory, never saw a beautiful city. One who did not see the Temple in its constructed state, never saw a magnificent structure. The Gemara asks: What is the Temple building to which the Sages refer? Abaye said, and some say that it was Rav Ḥisda who said: This is referring to the magnificent building of Herod, who renovated the Second Temple.

…

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: One who did not see the great synagogue [deyofloston] of Alexandria of Egypt never saw the glory of Israel.

Here it is, where do the Jews thrive? Neither of these choices are the expected Temple of Solomon.  The one in (Roman occupied) Jerusalem is the product of a disqualified, gentile, pretender king of Judea.  The other is in the land of bondage, mentioned at the very end of the great admonition in our parsha:

  וֶהֱשִֽׁיבְךָ֨ ׀ מִצְרַ֘יִם֮ בׇּאֳנִיּוֹת֒ בַּדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֣רְתִּֽי לְךָ֔ לֹא־תֹסִ֥יף ע֖וֹד לִרְאֹתָ֑הּ וְהִתְמַכַּרְתֶּ֨ם שָׁ֧ם לְאֹיְבֶ֛יךָ לַעֲבָדִ֥ים וְלִשְׁפָח֖וֹת וְאֵ֥ין קֹנֶֽה׃ {ס}      

   The LORD will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a route which I told you: you should not see again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but none will buy.

Here we are in the post holocaust (semi)exile.  There is a land of Israel, but there is enough confusion about the meaning and the mission that any leader is a pretender to the majority.  We thrive in America, the new Alexandria (or Alexander Platz) but for how long, and at what cost.  Most of Jewish history is a tale of exile, overcoming its hardships until the ascent attracts too much attention…

The haftarah, one of the chapters of consolation recited in this season, ends with

וְעַמֵּךְ֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם צַדִּיקִ֔ים לְעוֹלָ֖ם יִ֣ירְשׁוּ אָ֑רֶץ נֵ֧צֶר (מטעו) [מַטָּעַ֛י] מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָדַ֖י לְהִתְפָּאֵֽר׃

And your people, all of them righteous, Shall possess the land for all time; They are the shoot that I planted, My handiwork in which I glory.

This verse is used to introduce the weekly study of Ethics between Passover and Shavuoth, as spring turns to summer.  But it is put in a context:

כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְעַמֵּךְ֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם צַדִּיקִ֔ים לְעוֹלָ֖ם יִ֣ירְשׁוּ אָ֑רֶץ נֵ֧צֶר מטעו [מַטָּעַ֛י] מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יָדַ֖י לְהִתְפָּאֵֽר

All of Israel has a stake in the world to come, as it says:  And your people, all of them righteous, Shall possess the land for all time; They are the shoot that I planted, My handiwork in which I glory.

 

The sentence justifies the idea that the Jews have  a portion in the world to come, in Heaven

How do we bring Heaven to earth?

 The ultimate exile is the banishment from Eden